IR 05000309/1993001
| ML20127K000 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Maine Yankee |
| Issue date: | 01/15/1993 |
| From: | Joseph Furia, Pasciak W NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20127J995 | List: |
| References | |
| 50-309-93-01, 50-309-93-1, NUDOCS 9301260017 | |
| Download: ML20127K000 (8) | |
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U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMhilSSION REGION 1 Report No.
50-309/93-01 Docket No.10-309 License No.
DPR-36 Licensee:
Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company 83 Edison Drive Augusta. hiaine 04336 Facility Name:
Maine Yankee Nuclear Generating Station Inspection At:
Wiseasset. Maine Inspection Conducted:
January 4-8. 1993
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Inspector:
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/-/l-93 J. Furiak3cnior IEidiation Specialist, date Facilities Radiation Protection Section (FRPS),
Facilities Radiological Safety and Safeguards Branch (FRSSB), Division of Radiation Safety a
Ve, iard / Approved by: /Af -{ c~ p- # /-/f-25 \\Masciak,' Chief, FRPS, FRSS17DRSS date Areas Inspected: Announced inspection of the radiation protection program including: management organization, radiation control during normal operations, ALARA, and implementation of the above programs.
Fesults: Continued improvement in the overall radiation protection program was noted.
Significant improvement in outage planning as it relates to radiation protection and ALARA was also observed. Within the scope of this inspection, no safety concerns or violations of regulatory requirements were identified.
9301260017 930115 PDR ADOCK 05000309 G PDR _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ -
. _ . . . d DETAILS 1. Personnel Contacted 1.1 Licensee Personnel
- R. Blackmore, Plant Manager
- D. Caristo, Radiological Programs Section Head M. Finn, Dosimetry Administrator
- E. Heath, Radiological Controls Section Head D. Hickey, Radiation Protection Supervisor
- G. Leach, Vice President, Operations
- S. Nichols, Technical Support Manager
- G. Pillsbury, Radiation Protection Manager M. Readinger, Radiation Protection Supervisor -
T. Shippec, ALARA Coordinator
- J. Weast, Licensing Engineer R. Wills, Radiation Pro'.cction Supervisor Y, Zhu, Instrumentation Coordinator
' 1.2 NRC Personnel
- C. Marschall, Senior Resident Inspector W. Olsen, Resident inspector J. Joyner, Chief, FRSSB W. Pasciak, Chief, FRPS 1.3 Other Personnel
- P. Dostie, State of Maine Nuclear Safety Inspector
- Denotes those present at the exit interview on January 8,1993.
2. Puroose The purpose of this safety inspection was to review the licensee's programs for radiation protection during normal operations including ALARA, radiological controls, instrumentation, transportation and radwaste.
3. Radiation Protection The Radiation Protection Program continued to be implemented in a generally effective manner by the Radiation Protection Manager and his staff. As of the start of 1993, this staff consisted of 14 professionals and 21 technicians split into two principle sections, Radiological Controls and Radiological Programs. Since l November,1992 the two incumbent Section Heads had exchanged positions. In l
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addition, the incumbent Radwaste and Respiratory Protection Coordinators present at the time of the last inspection had subsequently left the licensee, and at the time of this inspection, the Radwaste Coordinator's position was vacant, while the Respiratory Protection Coordinator's position had been filled by the former Radiological Engineer. The position of ALARA Coordinator, w' ich was being filled on a n temporary basis at the time of the last inspection, was also filled near the end of 1992.
On January 6,1993, licensee management provided a presentation on the status of the Radiation Protectilon Improvement Program (RPIP). The licensee is in the process of completing the final program upgrade of the RPIP, which was begun in late 1990.
This final program area, Instrumentation, includes the development of a master program administrative procedure and 45 technical procedures, and is scheduled for implementation in April,1993. The licensee indicated that following the implementation of this final program area, it would have its Quality Assurance Department conduct a comprehensive program review to determine if it had met its initial goals established for the RPIP, and to identify any areas that remained weak and needed improvement.
Although total licensee staff in the radiation protection area has remained fairly constant over the past year, the licensee has made significant progress in improving the technical expertise of its technicians, most notably by encouraging the technicians to become certified by the National Registry of Radiation Protection Technologists (NRRPT). At the time of this inspection,13 of the 21 techniciana were now certified by NRRPT, and several others were awaiting the results of the NRRP'r qualification examination that was taken in November,1992. The licensee demonstrated its support for this effort by providing classroom space for courses, instructors to aid students and financial incentives for the technicians to want to be certified.
In addition to the completion of the RPIP process, the licensee has also decided to implement the new Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 20 (10 CFR 20) carly.
Implementation is mandatory by January 1,1994, however the licensee has decided to implement the new Part 20 in April,1993. To meet this goal, the licensee had to revise over 60 radiation protection procedures, especially in the dosimetry areas, and also to make significant revisions to its Health Physics Information System (HPIS), a computerized data base. At the time of this inspection, the licensee was in the final phase of verifying the accuracy of the revisions to the HPIS.
3.1 ALARA As mentioned above, late in 1992, the licensee hired a new ALARA Coordinator, bringing in an experienced individual who had served in the same
capacity at another nuclear facility. In addition, effective January 1,1993 the licensee had consolidated the ALARA function solely within the Radiation - -
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Potection Department, eliminating the diffusion of effort present during past re;ueling outages, when contractor ALARA personnel were assigned directly to various plant departments other than Radiation Protection. Two radiation protection technicians were also assigned to assist in this vital program area, and a contractor from the Yankee Nuclear Services Department (YNSD) was brought to the facility to aid in preparing ALARA reviews of work packages and determining ALARA goals for the August,1993 refueling outage. The license anticipated the hiring of additional ALARA contractors later in the year, as the outage grew closer.
For 1992, the licensee had established an ALARA goal of not more than 475 Person Rem. As of December 31,1992, total dose was at 464,7 Person-Rem, and the year end total was expected to be slightly less than this, once actual Thermoluminescent Dosimeter (TLD) data for the final quarter of 1992 was available. The goal for 1993 was yet to be established, and will be highly dependent on the length and scope of the refueling outage. Licensee initiatives for source term reduction included the reduction in porosity size of the primary letdown filters an4.igh boration shutdowns. In addition, the ALARA Coordinator was examining greater use of system flushing and the hydrolazing of selected pipe runs to reduce hot spots.
3.2 Work Control The licensee improved on an earlier initiative of having a Radiation Protection supervisor assigned to the Outage Planning and Implementation Team (OPIT).
The OPIT had responsibility for planning and scheduling all work to be performed during the upcoming refueling outage, and a radiation Protection Supervisor has been assigned to this group since the Spring of 1992, Prior to , the commencement of the 1992 refueling outage, a Radiation Protection l supervisor had also been assigned to OPIT, however this was done late in the planning process, and many of the benefits deriving from this assignment were ' lost. For the 1993 refueling outage, the OPIT had planned on handling up to 600 Radiation Work Permit (RWP) requests for outage related work, with completion of the RWPs by early August 1993 Additionally, the licensee was l placing radiation protection and ALARA hold points and instructions in the work packages being prepared for the outage to be utilized in the field, as an augmentation to the RWPs.
As part of this inspection, several walkdowns of the Radiologically Controlled Area (RCA) were conducted. Of note during these walkdowns was the clearly l-observable reduction in the number and size of contaminated areas within the ' plant. Only two incidents of minor problems were noted in the RCA, and each was resolved promptly by the licensee, i ' i . .
3.3 Instrumcatatism The licensee's program for the calibration aM maintenance of health physics instruments was under the direction of the inwrumentation Specialist, with two radiation protection technicians assigned to assist the specialist. As noted above, the instrumentation area was the last area to be upgraded as part of the RPIP. As such, the inspector did not review any procedures currently in use in this area, but rather ' ill defer this review until after the new program is in w place.
The licensee performed survey instrument, counting instrument, air sampling and frisker calibrations and repairs on-site. Calibration of beta / gamma survey instruments was performed utilizing two cesium.137 irradiators, traceable to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), while alpha calibration was performed with an americium-241 source set. The licensee did not perform its own neutron instrument calibrations, although it maintained an americium / beryllium source for check source purposes. Check sources were utilized on a daily basis for all survey type instrumentation in use, while weekly source checks were performed on the continuous air monitors and whole body friskers.
One minor deficiency noted during the inspection was the failure to document what, if any corrective actions were taken with regard to a Tennelec LB-5100 alpha / beta counter in use in the radiation protection laboratory. This counter exhibited a strong bias in its daily source checks throughout November and December 1992, including five instances where the source check result was outside the -3 sigma value.
3.4 Transoortation As mentioned above, late in 1992, the licensee's Radwaste Coordinator position became vacant. At the time of this inspection, the position remained vacant, and the licensee was utilizing both the Radiological Engineer and the Radiological Programs Section Head to perform the duties of the Radwaste Coordinator. Also at the end of 1992, the licensee entered into an aggressive shipping campaign to remove almost all radwaste in storage at the facility. At the time of this inspection, only 28 cubic feet of radwaste remained on site, however as of January 1,1993 the licensee was unable to dispose of any radwaste dnce the State of Maine had not entered into a contract with the Southeast Compact for continued access to the Barnwell IAw-Level Waste Management Facility. As part of this inspection, the following records for radioactive waste shipments made at the end of 1992 were reviewed: _.
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Shipment # Activity (Ci) Volume (cu ft) Type 92-W-8 7.53E+03 57.4 Irradiated Metal 92-W-12 8.75E-02 580.8 DAW 92-W-14 8.57E-02 1116.5 DAW 92-W-15 1.26E+02 158.1 Resin 92-W-17 9.11E+ 01 158.1 Resin All shipments were determined to have been made in accordance with 49 CFR Parts 100-177 and 10 CFR Parts 20, 61 and 71.
_ 4. Exit Interview The insrvxtor met with the licensee representatives denoted in Section 1 at the conc 1 sion of the inspection on January 8,1993. The inspector summarized the purpose, scope and Andings of the inspection.
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F . , LNCLOSURE 2
MAINE Y/.NKEE RADIATION PROTECTION PROGRAM UPDATE FOR THE NRC I.
Current Organization A.
Organizational Chart . B.
Group Education and Experience II.
Major Achievements and Initiatives A.
Rad Controls 1.
Man-rem Dose History by Year a 1993 Best Refueling Year Since 1981 a 2.
Personnel Contaminations Outage Performance
Normal Operations Performance a Contamination Events in " Clean Areas" a 3.
Contaminated Floor Area Historical Perspective a 4.
ALARA Outage Planning Coordinated by Single Individual a 5.
Contractor Training Advanced Radworker Training (8 hours) a 6.
Use of Dedicated YNSD Technicians Up to 12 for the Outage a B.
Rad Programs 1.
Rad Waste Backlog , Shipped 6058f t' in 1992 a Current Backlog of 28f t' for Onsite Storage a GDP93002
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Purchased New Compactor , 7:1 Volume Reduction Ratio j
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Eliminated ALL Mixed Waste j i 4.
Feasibility Study for RCS Chemical Decon Working Group Preparing Evaluation / Methodology
Implementation will Depend on Schedule and Funding
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Revamped Computerized Records System 10CFR20 Changes
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Rad Programs Technician Training Incorporated into Training Department Program
III. Upgrade Status A.
93% of the Upgrade Completed Prior to 1992 Outage B.
Instrument Program Upgrade 1.
Begun October 1992, will Finish April 1993 C.
10CFR20 Implementation 1.
Anticipate April 1993 Implementation 2.
Procedure Revisions Completed 12/31/92-3.
Training Scheduled for February / March 1993.
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Contractor Training Prior to Fall Outage D.
Closecut of Upgrade-1.
Performance of New MORT Assessment Post Outage IV.
Questions
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